


My Spine Is Twisted For Revenge

by Birdegg



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Blood, Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Child Abuse, Gen, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Jade's not doing great folks, Killing, Lawrence crock's A+ parenting, Remember that part in canon where Artemis and Jade had to fight each other as children???, Teaching children how to murder, because i do - Freeform, her mental states a little, this sounds very dark...its only kind of as dark as the tags imply, unstable
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-02
Updated: 2020-06-02
Packaged: 2021-03-03 06:00:43
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24499837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Birdegg/pseuds/Birdegg
Summary: She doesn’t think about her next actions, just flings herself into movement.She tackles Artemis to the ground before she even gets her sentence out, pinning her with sharp elbows.“Come on Baby-sis, you’ll need to be quicker than that!” She sneers; sweat beading on the nape of her neck. Lawrence laughs from somewhere outside of jade’s vision.“That’s my Jade, always vicious.”Or, growing up is hell when your dad's a psycho who pits you against your own sister. Jade didn't stand a chance.
Kudos: 12





	My Spine Is Twisted For Revenge

**Author's Note:**

> If child abuse bothers you, don't read this haha. There's a couple time skips in this one, as jade becomes more cynical and mentally unstable. I have a little head-canon that 'Cheshire' is a bit of a persona she uses to do the stuff she can't stomach, which sometimes means rapid mood swings.

Lawrence seems excited, which is never a good thing. He keeps grinning at them, like he’s checking if they’re still here and ready for whatever he’s planned. Artemis seems to be ignoring his looks completely all but laser focused on Jade’s hand. There is no worse scenario than if she tries to hold hands, not with their dad. Too much softness.

Jade crosses her arms, shifting her hips like she’s impatient. Lawrence snickers at her attitude, clapping his hands together sharply.

“All right girls, we got this whole training facility ‘til 12, and you better bet we’re going to make the best of it.” Jade feels cold slip down her back, as if someone just dropped snow down her spine. He’s always trained her directly, sparring with her with real kicks and punches. Was he going to make her watch as he did the same to Artemis? She’s 9, the same age jade started training at, but she seems much younger. Still baby-faced and small, still spelling things wrong. She doesn’t remember looking like that at 9.

“We taking turns coming at you?” She questions, forcing herself to speak. She can’t let Artemis do it, she always seems more anxious around their dad. Lawrence chuckles like she just told him a joke.

“No, little girl, your fight’n each other.” Jade can’t help but bristle at the order, muscles tensing and teeth clamping together. Artemis lets out a gasp and finally weakens enough to grab her older sisters hand in her own.

“I don-” she starts to cry out, eyebrows scrunched up in concern. Time seems to slow down for jade as she feels Lawrence’s attention shift to the younger daughter, his fingers curl into a fist. She doesn’t think about her next actions, just flings herself into movement.

She tackles Artemis to the ground before she even gets her sentence out, pinning her with sharp elbows.

“Come on Baby-sis, you’ll need to be quicker than that!” She sneers; sweat beading on the nape of her neck. Lawrence laughs from somewhere outside of jade’s vision.

“That’s my Jade, always vicious.”

\--------------------

Her first kill is nothing like she thought it’d be. Human skin slices so much easier than you would think, and blood is much thicker than horror movies have anyone believe. Jade gags into the corner of the room, glad she hadn’t eaten much this morning. Her back shudders with the effort as nothing but bile exits her mouth, bitter and acidic.

“What was that, little girl?” Asks Lawrence, cool as a cucumber and blocking the only door. He’s wiping his knife off; probably having killed all the other dock workers in the time it took her to kill one. She has no possible excuses for him, except for babblings about the way the man’s eyes had shone with terror. She pants emptily, staring at her father without any expression as he sheaths his knife.

“Fuck kid, you gotta get used to this work. Let it sink in, huh?” He itches the back of his head like he genuinely doesn’t know what to do with her, before closing the door to the garage that was built into the large Atlantic freight building. Jade eyes the door, walking to it on new-born legs.

“Dad?” She rasps, too tired to be embarrassed by the weakness in her voice.

“I’ll pick you up tomorrow. Get used to the whole killing thing in the meantime!” He shouts from behind the metal structure, and the lock clicks shut. Jade laughs nervously, rubbing her arms up and down as she realizes what he means. Her eyes glance towards the man’s body before bouncing away. She can smell the heavy scent of blood, and the sharp tang of her own stomach contents in the corner. The garage structure was only made for one of the lifts; the space between her and the man is a couple of steps. She crouches down, struggling as far as she can into the corner of the room.

Much as she hates this, is her dad right? She’s going to be in the family business, dead people are just part of the package. Her hands tremble as she chips away at the dry flecks of red. Will she have a dumb name like her dad if she’s going to be doing this? Sportsdaughter? She giggles hoarsely, scratching her bitten nails down her skin. Maybe she’ll be a Cheshire cat, like the one in that book she reads Artemis. Able to disappear at a moment’s notice, never trapped anywhere.

\--------------------

There’s blood against the carpets. That’s the first thing that registers the speckles of red that mar the already worn shag carpets.

Then she sees Artemis. She’s half against the floor and half upright, holding her hand to her face. Her cheek is already beginning to red, and jade knows from experience it will bruise blue and purple. Scratches rake down her other arm, raised red lines with tiny drops of blood escaping from the worst of them. She’s looking up at Jade with big eyes, water glittering in them like pretty jewels.

Jade’s hands are shaking, and she has no idea what expression she’s making. Her body feels beyond herself, something uncontrollable and devastating, like a hurricane. Except that’s not true. She’s not really Cheshire, some unknowable entity with no stakes in the heroine’s journey. What just happened? Why did she-why did she hurt her little sister outside of combat?

Artemis lets out a low angry sound, tears dripping down her cheeks as she does.

“What the fuck Jade! You can’t just punch me any time I ask you about missions! I’ll need to do them too!” Jade shudders in a way that seems to alarm Artemis, shaking her head like she’s warding off flies.

“Shut you stupid mouth.” She snarls, baring her gleaming teeth “All you ever do is complain and cry, toughen up a little for fucking once!” Artemis wipes away her tears with the back of her arm, disturbing the blood welling from the scratch marks. She lets out a wordless shriek of fury and betrayal before stomping to the door. It slams loudly, echoing in the small apartment like a drum. Jade glares at the carpet, small shivers still wracking her body. She shouldn’t have yelled at Artemis, it wasn’t her fault Jade was fucking insane. Jade curls up on the floor, clutching her head and wondering what was happening to her. Was she turning into her dad?


End file.
